started lifting a 1200-ton, 165- foot tall section that is the first part of our signatures than for the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge. you can sit right here behind me. it is already vertical. it is being unbolted, and it will be split into place and sit down on a foundation where it will stand for at least 150 years in the next few hours. without further ado, i would like to introduce our secretary of california business, transportation, and housing agency, secretary dale bonner. >> thank you very much, and thank you all for coming out here this afternoon. great to be here. great day for the bay area commuters. i want to just underscore that today is a day that has been very long in coming, so we are all gathered here today to recognize a little bit of history that is going on. i'm here on behalf of the

governor and state to release say not only congratulations but a number of well-deserved bank used to everybody who has been instrumental in helping us get this far today, and that includes our local and regional and federal partners who have been great to work with over the last several years at least and probably longer in getting us here. members of the toll bridge program oversight committee, i see some of you here today. i see we have some members of the california transportation commission, at least one of whom you will hear from this morning, but the others, good to see you here today. i want to thank the new director of the department of transportation who has been working on at least the financial and funding part of this project for a number of years, and we look forward to the leadership you will bring to it now as the director of caltrans.

i was here last week trying to tell everybody what a good job your doing in district four with this project and some of the other complex projects you have going on in this region, but we appreciate you hear as well. i also want to thank a few of the hard hats we see here today. these 30 people who have worked very hard to turn a vision and a bunch of raw materials into the world-class asset that will stand the test of time, so we appreciate the hard work they have done. and most of what we, i think we need to say thank you to the bay area commuters for their patience and support and for hanging in with this project and for pushing and cajoling those of us, the decision makers, and those of us who were responsible for delivering this project on time. we appreciate your patience and support. we're celebrating the placement of the first tower section in the self-anchor suspension span, which will soon be a very breathtaking landmark here in the san francisco bay area.

this is yet another impressive engineering and construction milestone in what has been an ongoing seismic retrofit project here for a very long time. it is one of the country's most vital bridges that was important not only to the bay area and the state of california but in fact, the united states. we all know we have achieved a great deal so far and that is why we are gathered here today, but we also know that there is much more to do, so we are going to look forward to the continuing support and dedication for many years to come. i would like to ask my friend, another great leader in this area, the mayor of oakland, to come forward and say a few words this morning. [applause] >> thank you. i have a few brief remarks i would like to make, but let me just began on a personal note. someone mentioned history a few

minutes ago. someone had said longevity has its place. i'm probably one of the few people at this gathering that can recall the origin of this bridge or at least by my mother and father's accounts. when the bay bridge first opened up, they allow people to walk on the bridge for a nickel or a dime, and my folks told me that they carried me as a tiny kid on to that bridge, so i have lived long enough to see an extraordinary evolution. it is fitting that the entrance to this world-class region, which serves as a gateway to the pacific rim, and the world of trade, commerce, and economic exchange, is a world-class landmark bridge, a remarkable engineering feat. this bridge not only graces the point of entry to the port of oakland, one of the most powerful economic engines in the

greater bay area region, but it also connects the people and cities of the bay area. our economies and opportunities are interdependent. safe crossing facilitates healthy exchange and movement of goods, services, people, and tourists. the safety i allude to cannot be underestimated. as beautiful as this remarkable tower will be, and indeed will be beautiful, the critical factor of this seismic retrofit is our emergency preparedness. to that end, this project is essential for the bay area's economic health, particularly following a major disaster. in this case, potentially an earthquake. finally, i wish to both thank and congratulate each and every person that participated in the planning, the hard work that brings us to this moment and beyond.

with those remarks, i would now like to introduce my distinguished colleague and very good friend, the mayor of san francisco, mayor gavin newsom. [applause] mayor newsom: thank you for being out here and taking the time out of your day. let me just pay special thanks to all the hard working men and women that have worked so hard on this project for all these many years. the people in the building and construction strayed, all the engineers, all the seismic experts, all those consultants that helped bring us to where we are today. i have got to admit -- three years, $77 million, and a new bridge and a transbay terminal is pretty impressive. i want to remind you it only took three years to be imagine

the day by building this bridge. here we are with a $1.43 billion self-anchored suspension with a component of a 6.2/$6.3 billion project just for a portion of this bridge that has taken a little bit more than three years. i have to be honest -- i, at a point when i was a city supervisor, thought this would never happen. this thing that caught up in politics, the likes of which i could never have imagined. we had a new mayor on that side, new mayor on the side, one has strong opinions about where this thing would take off, and another had a design issue. the two governors, one that had left, and finally, greg davis said enough, stop, we have to get this thing done, and basically broke the impact and

got us moving. i know folks do not like to hear that, but let's be honest -- the earthquake was in 1989, and here we are 20 years later, and we are a number of years away from this being completed. my long winded point is not to rein on the party but to acknowledge this because it needs to be acknowledged. that is an important point of the history, that we have finally made up for some of those delays. we are finally moving expeditiously. we are reaching our goals. we're working collaborative live together on the east side and west side of the day. we're working with the governor's office. the bureaucracy is moving. unions are working. people are out here, and real things are taking shape. the 280,000 vehicles that go across this every single day, and they have been waiting patiently to get to this point. by the way, i have been waiting

patiently, too, because i was just in shanghai, it seems like a few weeks back, and literally, the day that we arrived was the day that this piece of the bridge was shipped off. if it could have gotten on the plane, we would have been here a few weeks ago, but it took a little bit of time. it was wonderful to actually be here with some of the folks that were doing the construction out in shanghai, a sister city of san francisco, and to see it be here. it is a wonderful sight indeed. this is a world class structure. there is nothing like it in the united states of america. one could argue there's no tower like this anywhere in the world. this is something for generations that we're going to be very proud of. we have the icon, which is the golden gate bridge. i think the bay bridge is

beautiful. it always is the stepchild of the golden gate, but i think that could change. nothing will replace the putin and majesty of the golden gate, the folks will be talking about this bridge all around the world. it is absolutely spectacular. has been a work of love and passion. so many people that made this happen and kept this moving, and i want to put my hat off to all of you, and in the spirit of and had, make a point that needs to be made about this hat, and that is we are very proud that we delivered another icon. this not from the far east in asia, but from back east in new york city with a brilliant move by the golden state warriors that was lost not by all of us out here but by some folks in the media le media lebron game stuff where we were able to get one of the top free agents in

the country to come out to play for the warriors, and he happens to be here, david lee. thank you for being here. you are going to be seeing a lot of this guy. he is a superstar. he brought with him these hats. what am i talking about? the hat has a new icon, a new logo. it has on the hat, the new suspended and that we are putting in today, which is now the new logo of the golden gate warriors, and how appropriate that we celebrate our regional team and celebrate today david coming on board and the new logo being released by the warriors with these new golden state warrior hats. that is why i grabbed it. that is why i'm thankful david is here. i want to thank our leaders.

i asked that scott hagerty come on up, supervisor hagerty, to say a few words. he has been an extraordinary leader on this for many years. he deserves the opportunity to speak even longer than this long winded politicians. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i appreciate you being here today. i was almost fearful you were going to put on that have and make some sort of political statement, but we are extremely excited about david lee coming over to the warriors. i will remove two pages of my speech because of yours -- that is okay. this is the way we do it. we kind of improvised. i'm chairman of mtc and also serve as alameda county

supervisor, and i just want to tell you that the installation of this first leg is not just a construction milestone. i have in the audience today my wife who is sitting back there, who just went, "oh, god, why'd you do that?" i also have my son here, and i have been talking to my kids, and i've said what is happening here is a part of history. has been said many times that this is a part of history, but this is something we're building for future generations. many generations in the future will be using this bridge, and quite frankly, as we continue to struggle with deficits, our children are the ones that are going to have to pay the debt off, and that is something i think about almost daily as an elected official in alameda county. i think that if we're going to put our children this far in debt, we might as well give them something they can use, so i think with this bridge, we are

certainly doing that. [laughter] unless you want to pay it off. i do not know how your budget is going. but there is a byproduct of this village -- of this bridge. when the great depression came, they built the bridge, the caldecott tunnel, and as we struggle through this recession, we are actually doing the same thing. we're building a new board for the caldecott tunnel, and we are building a new bridge. not only are we putting a bridge of. not only are we in a situation in which we are creating history for our children, but more importantly, we are putting people in the bay area back to work, and we have been working, so i think that is probably the best thing we're doing for the people we represent. the team of designers for this is extensive, and we have mofford and knuckle, the construction contractors from american bridge, the fabricators from dpmc, and the project

managers and financiers from the toll bridge program oversight committee. this is a partnership between the california transportation commission and the bay area poll authority, and i know the mayor pointed out earlier that steve is here from the full authority but more importantly runs the commission. also, our wonderful caltrans director that i got to meet a few weeks ago, to find out we kind of hailed from the safe area -- the same area. earlier, some of you gave a shout out to bijon, who has to be one of the busiest people right now. everything going on in district four clearly points out that he is really earning his money. as the fellow commissioner, i want to thank you very much for everything that you do. together, we are building a bridge that will not only

establish a new standard of engineering excellence and seismic safety but also provide a beautiful landmark. as was pointed out, the golden state warriors have adopted this landmark, and we are particularly proud about that. i did call steve the day they unveiled that, as if there's any way we could get any money out of this, and he said no. he said he thinks that the taxpayers have already paid enough. so we did have that conversation. the team behind this bridge is composed of stars all around the world. the tower sections are not only designed to rigorous standards but is also built to rigorous standards and as a result is world-class. we are happy to celebrate today's accomplishment of the team so far, but we are mindful there is still so much to do. we are in a race against time before the next big earthquake hits the bay area, and quite frankly, that is what we're working for. to win the race against time, it

is essential that we all keep working together, we pick up the pace so we can get this new bridge open to traffic. please listen to this -- 2013. did you hear that? andy? ok. with that, i would like to introduce our next speaker, someone that really needs no introduction, someone helps men and women on a daily basis keep their jobs and work and do everything they need to do, and that is our ctc commissioner. [applause] >> thank you. with every objective met, we get closer to achieving our goal of seismic safety on the busiest bridge in our state, and actually, one of the most travelled corridors in america. this bridge is not only the back band of transportation for the bay area, it is an extremely important route for the entire state of california, and we see that whenever we take the bridge out of service. it takes months of planning, and

we have to literally inform stakeholders throughout the state. what makes this bridge even more special, if not crucial, is the fact that it is being designed and built, as mentioned earlier, as an icon for generations to come. it will do its job of getting people across the bay with innovative engineering, elegant construction, and architectural pinache. i like that word. until now, we have not had a chance to witness what this bridge will to look like, but as we placed the segments that have just arrived, is to become clear that california will have another symbol of its constant effort to dream big and to deliver new cutting edge ideas and benefits to society. although we have a ways to go, today, we honor the team work and effort that has gone into delivering one of the most technically challenging bridges ever attempted. thanks to the bay bridge team, and i mean that in the broadest

terms imaginable. we see that if agencies, contractors, fabricators, inspectors, and the good union class men and women work together as a team, there is no challenge that cannot be met. i want to thank everybody for coming today. this is truly an honor for me to the year, both as a craftsman and a member of the commission. thank you very much. [applause] >> i would like to introduce not only a good friend, but as you will see as this thing moves forward, one heck of a partner. mike flowers from american bridge is going to give us a little chat on the technical part of what we're doing today. [applause] >> thanks. distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, after four

painstaking years of planning and watching literally thousands of fabricated pieces come skillfully together, it is massive tower elements of this one-of-a-kind bridge, it is with great satisfaction that we pause in celebration of the installation of first our segment of self-anchored suspension bridge, but no matter how complete the plant, it has to be executed by people. skilled craftsmen, inspectors, and engineers that bring to light to plans and divisions of the designers, dedicated workers to whom today's spot light belongs. on this occasion, i would like to thank the department -- cindy and the department for all of its support and partnership. the toll bridge oversight committee for its leadership. the design joint venture for its

vision. the careful -- dpmc who carefully crafted these pieces together, a special thanks for the crescent ship, the professional skill, innovation in meeting the challenge of constructing this unprecedented structure. i want to echo scott hagerty's comments that this milestone, while meaningful, is but a step in the ultimate journey of restoring this bridge to seismic safety. on behalf of over 300 employees that are building this bridge even as we speak for the team of american bridge and floor, i want to pledge to you our best efforts in working with you our best efforts to complete it as safely and quickly as we can. so for a brief moment, let us pause to recognize the accomplishments of many, but let

us be ever mindful of our ultimate goal in the service of even more. thanks. with that, i want to turn the program back over to the caltrans spokesman. [applause] >> ok, i would like to thank our speakers today for their great comments in acknowledging this moment in history and all the work that has been done by the bay bridge team and basically conclude the ceremony portion of what we are going to be doing today. for those of you in the media that are going to be taking the boat trip, i need to talk with you for a few minutes, so give us basically invented to excuse everybody. those of you in the media, please stay right here. i'm going to go over the next steps we have to do to go out on the water to see this thing very closely. also, thank you to the warriors for showing up today, and taking this icon literally on to their

uniforms. thanks, everybody. one minute, media. government television. >> good afternoon. everyone hear me all right? ok. i will try to talk loud, but sounds like the mikes are working. thanks for coming, everybody. welcome to the new great valencia street. i'm the director of public works in san francisco. it is a great honor to be here with you and all of the great folks we have around us. it is great to be here on a great day for the mission

district, a great day for the ci city. the san francisco department of public works at the mayor's direction was able to secure $6.1 million, $5.3 million of which was federal funds, to make this project happen. i do want to acknowledge the u.s. department of transportation, the metropolitan transportation commission and county transportation authority for helping funnel that money from washington, d.c. right here to the streets of san francisco. as big and great as this new street is for san francisco -- and it is great -- it just yet another chapter in an ongoing narrative about our open space and the public realm in in san francisco from street fairs to outside festivals to extensions of the sidewalks to sunday streets, and any of you here this past sunday just a few blocks down for sunday streets

in the mission knows what i'm talking about. but from sunday streets to the new pavement to parks, to the major street reconstructions like this, there is a narrative that has a theme of opening up our public realm for a much broad are use. rethinking our public realm and making it accessible to all modes of transportation, to all people and more enjoyable for people to be in as opposed to just pass through. we are about to take a big step in terms of institutionalizing some of the thinking behind the transformation of our open space and you are going to hear about that today. but none of this from the pavement to parks to sunday streets to this project and rest of the great streets program that we manage would have been possible and we wouldn't be here today were it not for the vision, leadership and drive and tenacity of our mayor, who i would like to bring up, mayor

gavin newsom. >> thank you for coming out. we have done a number of these. san bruno avenue. and this is now competing for that title as good as it gets. to portions of polk street. we have been doing a lot of this lately and we are really proud of it. a lot of folks have been wondering why we get so caught up in this and why this is so important and not all the other things you are supposed to focus on such as much. we are focused on other things just as much, but the reason we highlight this is it is tangible. it is a manifestation of an ideal and vision to connect the dots and connect communities in a different way and connect different functions of government and in a more streamlined manner. to also connect funding to allow us to avail ourselves to federal

pots of money that we were not in the past availing ourselves to. to utilize the speaker of the house as a vocal reserve in a constructive, thoughtful and strategic way to take advantage of former mayor dianne feinstein and senior center in a thoughtful way. to leverage the work being done at the m.t.a. and san francisco transportation authority and with community leaders, and to package these things with a narrative that can anchor our future where these are not one-off projects and this becomes the norm. there is actually a story line in terms of how we approach our public realm. in the past none of that really existed. we had communities that said enough is enough, we need to focus on our streets and somebody with a louder voice camino to the supervisors a -- came to the supervisor or mayor and said focus on our streets. now we have a deliberative plan

and we are codifying this vision. it started in 2005, but then it started to take shape formally in 2007 when we asked the m.t.a., d.p.w., department of health, department of environment, public utilities commission and other departments to come together in a way they never had and say what are you planning to do? what are you thinking of doing? what are you asking for in terms of federal and state appropriations? what are we looking for in terms of general fund support? and put it on paper and we said here is the priority, here is the cost, let's do big projects. not the just little projects no one ever notices and let's reimagine our streets and connect the arts community to what we are trying to do. let's get the bicycle community, the pedestrian advocates and senior advocates together to be part of this vision and get the merchants to be part of this. so, here is a testament to all of that collective wisdom and

hard work that has been advanced the last number of years. $6.1 million as ed said has been invested into this effort. brand-new trees, brand-new lighting. new artistic components that connect our past with the present and future. we have new trash receptacles. trust me, it is a big deal. we have the disability community part of this with more curb cuts. we looked at the sidewalks and said let's extend them. let's widen them. you will remember not long ago and a reminder of it you had this awkward wide street with narrow sidewalks and you had this weird median strip that really wasn't a median strip. it was just a mark with yellow lines and wouldn't necessarily marked with raised concrete which is in and of itself not so wonderful but it was awkward. now you have the ability for a